Pasture guide
The honest answer is that it depends on rainfall, forage and management — and the range is enormous. Here is how to get a real number for your own ground.
One animal unit is conventionally a 1,000 lb cow with a calf. A big modern cow is more than one unit, and buying more cow means fewer of them.
Bulls, yearlings, horses, sheep and goats all convert to animal units so you can add mixed stock together.
Stocking rate is animal units per acre over a season; carrying capacity is what the land can sustain year after year.
Rainfall and region. This is the dominant factor and why any single rule of thumb is wrong somewhere.
Forage type and fertility — improved, fertilized pasture grows several times what unmanaged brush ground grows.
Grazing management. Rotational grazing typically supports more animals on the same acres than continuous grazing.
Season length and whether you feed hay through winter.
Ask your county extension office or NRCS field office for local carrying-capacity guidance; they publish it by soil type.
NRCS Web Soil Survey gives forage production estimates for the exact soils on your parcel.
Talk to neighbors running cattle on similar ground — the most useful data available.
Understock your first year. Overgrazing a pasture costs more to fix than the calves would have earned.
Plan water before animals. Water placement limits usable acres more than fence does.
Build in a drought plan: what you sell first, and at what point.
Count hay ground and shade separately — not every acre is grazeable acre.
Carrying capacity varies enormously by region, soil and rainfall. Use NRCS and your local extension service for numbers specific to your land.